Options for my home office

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I've started my home garage, changing it from this-

and now, today I've got to this point-

Whilst spending my day painting the walls and floor with a weatherproof sealant, I have been thinking about what the next steps will be in converting this space into an office that will allow me to work in quiet and comfort, whatever the weather conditions outside.  First consideration has been to waterproof the walls and floor, as the UK winter (and often the other seasons) can have a big impact on the security and safety of this potential workspace.  It has flooded more than once, through the walls from the outside garden flower beds, so I have accentuated the beds and put in more plants to soak up any excess water.  Next step is to make the office a place where I can work and be inspired to market properties as well as I can.

Options-

Option	Pros	Cons
Leave it as it is	Least cost and time/effort            Has the effect of a New York loft	Will be more expensive to heat, as there is no insulation
Another coat of white paint	Low cost and effort again            A blank canvas to add pictures and effects to inspire	Doesn’t solve the heat and insulation problem
Lining the walls with an insulating material	Will help to keep long-term heating costs down            Cheapest option that involves further action	Major concerns over building regulations            Brings fire safety issues in to play            Time and money to source the right materials at the right cost
Line the walls and then plaster/board over and decorate	Will look like a conventional office            Will be more insulated and save on heating costs	Expense starts to grow            Sourcing materials is even more costly and time consuming than above
Pay a builder to convert officially	Will add value to my home            Will be official and legitimate	High cost solution to what may be a temporary problem            Will accentuate my desire to permanently work from home, rather than eventually build up the business to an office base.

I am genuinely undecided about the best way forward, as I want this to be a low-cost solution to a problem, for the time period that I am working from home, and I also want it to be weather-proof, comfortable, safe and inspiring.

Decision time will be my next full day off work, 2 weeks from now.

Everything I think I need to sort out before opening

228 After a whirlwind and scattergun start to my plans for opening an estate agency next year, I have decided that the next best step is to gather together all the aspects that I think I need to cover before the grand opening.

Here goes (in no particular order)-

• A new computer or laptop. My current one is fine for family use but I need a separate workstation with more memory.
• A dedicated telephone line for the business.  Either an extra landline at home or a dedicated mobile phone and number.
• Sorting out the 2nd garage at the rear of the house that I will convert into an office space.
• Furniture for this home office, including a desk, lockable filing cabinets, chairs and stationery.  I have an old dining room table, dining chairs, an office chair, a sideboard, a wardrobe, a chest of drawers and some other smaller pieces of furniture in the garage already, so some of these will be re-used or upcycled.
• A cashflow forecast and business plan for the first year of trading.
• I need a website designed and built.  The design and content are still to be decided, and will take the form of a complete blog of it's own.
• I need to source a provider of for sale boards, design what my boards will look like and have them produced.
• I need to get a grip on what advertising I will use, how it will look, where it will appear, etc.  This is a massive subject and will be it's own blog subject in the future.
• I'm looking at links to the local community to run alongside my advertising and other marketing.  I'm thinking about links to a local school, a local sports club and some other community projects.  I will provide them with support and financial help, maybe with a twist.
• I will need a solicitor for 2 reasons.  Firstly for advice for setting up my business as a legal entitiy, then a reliable referral point for any conveyancing business that I come across.
• An accountant, for the setting up of the business as well.  I will need advice regarding how to set up the business, whether a sole tradership, a partnership or a limited company will best serve my needs.
• I will need to open a business bank account, with online access, but also a local branch for paying in any rent money taken in cash or by cheque.
• A final decision on whether I open with sales and lettings.  If I have lettings as well then I will need contacts for the management of the properties, such as electricians, plumbers, glaziers and central heating engineers.
• I will be looking into the availability of business grants in my area to help with the set-up costs.  As I type this, I have now put this to the top of my mental list.
• I have an idea about becoming a "hybrid" of online and offline state agents by using the window of a High Street business to display my properties and contact details.  I'll need to look into this and start to speak to local businesses about the possibility of this.
• I will need to register with the ombudsman service for estate agency, look at membership of the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) and, if relevant, the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA)
• I will need to look at contacting, and forging a working relationship with a local mortgage adviser that will be able to assist my clients with their financial needs.
• Likewise with a local surveyor, especially for clients that are buying without arranging finance.
• I have spoken to several companies in the past that supply a software tool for managing an estate agency.  A sort of client and property database, with the ability to upload properties to portals, match clients with properties, email property details to clients and other daily functions.
• On that note, I will need to look at which property portals I am considering and from there, look at costs and fit this into my marketing plan.
• I will need to look at several levels of insurance - any changes to my car insurance, any changes to my home insurance from having a business operate from home and any business insurance I need for operating in clients homes.
• I will most probably set up a charitable foundation where any fundraising will go.  I also intend to donate a percentage of my profits to this charitable foundation.  In the early stages of my thought process, I want some of this money to go to a local charity and some to go to a charity related to housing, maybe Shelter.

I know that this won't be a comprehensive list, and other things will pop up as time goes by.  If anyone has any ideas, suggestions or can see any glaring ommissions then please let me know!

Clearing out my garage to make way for a home office

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I have taken on the task of clearing out 20 years worth of junk from my garage top make it a cleaner, safer area to set up a home office, so I can work in peace when I need to.  It did not all get cleared away today, as there was much more rubbish in there than I first feared.  eBay has found itself with the following items for sale added to it's already bulging inventory-

• 6 used (but still working) radiators
• 2 lampshades
• a king-size bed
• a wardrobe
• a dining room table
• countless soft toys and kids clothes
• a car radio
• 40 books
• 4 louvre rails, including 1 for a bay window

If you need any of this stuff then just get in touch!

The initial idea is that I have a refuge for when the kids are at home, somewhere that I can use to send emails, make calls and be creative.  It will also be the base for any other activities that I carry out, such as the blog, any photography work I get and my other business selling books and games online via Amazon and eBay.  It won't receive clients, as my estate agency will be online, so it can be my "den" where I can surround myself with things that inspire and comfort me.

It's a single-shell brick-built garage, and I live in a wet part of the UK, so the first step is to get it empty, get the floor, walls and ceiling interior sealed and check the roof (although I think it's in a pretty good state.)  From there I will decide how much time and money I want to put towards insulating the inside and then the interior decoration will be quite minimal, based on what I already own plus anything I find at car boot sales or online.  Basic comfort, plus the ability to be able to work in peace are the important considerations.

Once all the items are sold or disposed of, then I can start on preparing the interior.

Home Office furniture options from Amazon

First work using learnings from my photography course

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This is the first of my work on depth of view/depth of field after my first two photography classes.  The idea is that the closest flower is in complete focus and the shallow depth of field leaves the other flowers out of focus/blurred in the background.

And I've gone for the same effect when photographing my eldest, here. He appears so much closer than the sofa he is sitting on, and the rest of the background.

And my final effort with roses from the garden.

I am using this course and the grasp of basic techniques to look at how I might develop my style and how I might make the most of the marketing photos I will use when I open my estate agency.  I'm off into town tomorrow, so I'll look at using some more of this week's techniques there.

Don't forget that all of these have been taken with the Canon EOS 1200D DSLR camera.

Reading marketing books to spark my creative brain

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I've taken on a lot of reading this weekend to get my brain going and start some ideas processes relating to my estate agency.

The main area I've looked at is marketing and how the business sits in the market.

I've read two books this weekend-

Brilliant Marketing by Richard Hall

And

The Cluetrain Manifesto by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger

Brilliant Marketing is a good starter book to get ideas about the process of marketing your business or products. It's probably meant more for someone who works in the marketing industry (particularly a marketing department of a large company or a large consultancy) but there are ideas there that will spark your interest and get your process in order.

I have taken ideas from the book regarding how I should look at the marketing of my business.

1- Setting out what makes us different

2- Deciding what my market is

3- Deciding where my market converse

I am different for many reasons, and I have decided to make a list of what I think sets me apart and to ask friends and family what they would want from an estate agent, from the list. I'm also going to look into the Survey Monkey site to see if I can set up a survey to assess the same, but with a wider audience. Twitter, Facebook and my blog will probably be the forums for this activity.

My market is firstly the town I'll be operating in, but I want to define it further. I will operate as a sales and lettings agent, but I think that with the marketing techniques I'll be using and the overwhelming emphasis I'll put on customer service, I want to be targeting the middle to top end if the market. I want to just concentrate on my town as well. I see many agents that sell in  satellite towns but I really want to establish myself as the expert in MY town.

Where my market converse is a slightly trickier one, as I won't have a High Street office - I'm going to operate as a local online agent. I'm looking into renting/borrowing window space from a retailer in the local High Street, but I feel that online has more mileage than offline in today's market. I have set up 2 online ventures today that I think will assist me in my quest to direct local online traffic to my website. I have set up a Facebook page for the town and a blog on the housing market in the town.  My intention is that the first is a conduit for local people to discuss local issues and the second to establish my voice as an authority on the housing market in the area.

I see modern marketing of a property as a partnership between the expertise of the agent and the reach via social media of the vendor.

First day done!